an insincere prince by Linda M. Crate

your bitter song
was pomegranate,
but i refused to eat
the seeds;
you were not hades
so i could not be your
persephone—
you were a devil
guised as an angel,
but if you were once
celestial
you traded your virtues
for your pride
like lucifer
falling from heaven;
you were a prince charming
but insincere—
into the woods
you will find i am not
cinderella,
but the witch;
and i will bury you
before anyone can interfere—
this is your final act
because you couldn’t
apologize
for all the things you did to me
that were unforgiveable,
and so i will take the very thing
you made me forfeit: life.
____________________________________________________________

Linda M. Crate is a writer whose works have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies both online and in print. She is the author of six poetry chapbooks, the latest of which is: More Than Bone Music (Clare Songbirds Publishing House, March 2019). She is also the author of the novel Phoenix Tears (Czykmate Books, June 2018).

